Last month I ran the Round Rock Roadrunner 10k again. I decided to train for it this year so that I wouldn’t hate running at the end of the race. I was mostly trying to prepare mentally for the last mile and a half of the mulch trail which killed me last year.

Jeana was planning to show up with the kids to cheer me on part way through the race so that she didn’t have to get them all up so early. There was a tentative hope that she’d be there at the mile 4 post but when I searched the small crowd of people cheering there, I didn’t see any Baldwins. Oh well, I just figured I was running so fast that they weren’t able to arrive in time to see me at that point of the race.

Then…the mulch trail. I went into it feeling strong. This year I was all alone on the trail so I had noone to commiserate with. Honestly, I feel like the race organizers intentionally place the mile 5 and 6 posts incorrectly to mess with your mind. Up until mile 5 I thought I was doing so well, but since the mile marker was probably incorrect, I was a little deflated.

Finally, I came to the end of the trail, crossed the road, saw my family cheering by the large Chic-fil-A blow-up cow, and passed the mile 6 marker. All that was left was one lap of the track. I had told myself earlier that I wanted to sprint the last 400 meters this year. Well, that was a lame idea. By the time I arrived at the track, I just wanted the race to be over again.

I crossed the finish line without that teenage contender I had last year (thankfully). I was excited to see the results posted not long after the finish.

Time: 47:11
Overall Place: 23 (out of 237)
Class Position: 4 (out of 41)
Pace: 7:37/mile

4th! Fourth place in my age and gender! I’m happy. And, my pace was 11 seconds faster than last year. This time I didn’t swear off running at the finish line. I feel much better.

Of course, we had Audrey and Kate run the fun run after the 10k race. Audrey had to run 2 laps this year now that she’s six years old. When her group lined up at the start line, she was the smallest (and most likely the youngest since her 6th birthday was just a couple weeks earlier) and cutest.

We stuck around for the drawings at the end – not many people stayed. Kate won a huge gift basket prize from the Chic-fil-A cow and she felt special. She and Audrey each got toy cows with the phrase, “EAT MOR CHIKIN” attached. That became a common play theme around the house for the next week.